Sympathy For The Devil
by Switch1
Summary: Bounty hunters Spike and Jet are joined by Switch and Cooper from the SYMPATHY group, and are sent to stop a drugs exporting operation...
1. Default Chapter

Prologue - Introduction to This Nightmare

The year is 2039. After earth was wrecked by a disaster, the human race's attitude towards life changed. No longer was there a sense of security or 'help for your fellow man'. Greed and selfishness play a bigger role in their lives. Space is a dangerous place when there is no sense of law and order. Greed has caused many to turn criminal for the sake of more money. Yet not all criminal have took on illegal jobs because of greed. The Universal Government (UG) raised taxes dramatically to squeeze more money out of everyone. Many criminals are there to make sure that their family has a future....

Episode 1 - Greed, Hunger and Motivation

' Hey! You cheated!' yelled Switch as he lost another poker game to Spike.

' Everyone loses once in a while. Hand it over.' Spike said in a taunting manner. Switch reluctantly handed over his silver wrist chain.

' This will fetch quite a bit when I pawn it.' taunted Spike while he examined the chain. 

' That money will go towards this weeks food...' came a voice from behind.

It was Jet, the SYMPATHY group's leader, and pilot of the ship. ' I let yous stay on the ship, the least you could do is help buy food.'

Switch and Spike quickly glanced at each other.

' If we catch a bounty, we won't need to worry about food for a while.' said Jet

' _If _we catch a bounty. We haven't had much luck at getting the ones with high rewards. The only high bounty we ever came close to catching was that assassin on Heifong. But Switch _accidentally _killed him before we could hand him in..' Spike replied, as he glared at Switch

' I was defending myself! If a guys jumps at you with a knife, you don't just stand by and let him kill you...' argued Switch. 

' You should have knocked him out! Not have shot him dead! yelled Spike.

'........I'm sorry.....' Switch whimpered.

' Alright! Calm down! Both of you! We've went over this before.' yelled Jet, as he broke up the argument. ' You will just have to try harder next time!'

There was an uneasy silence in the room. It was broken be Spike mumbling, ' I'm gonna go train in the VCT(Virtual Combat Trainer)...' He stood up and left the room.

There was more silence until Switch said, ' So what's our next bounty head?'

' Ivan's working on it. He scanning the web for a 'suitable' bounty...' replied Jet.

' You mean an easy one, don'cha? 

Jet grunted before getting up and leaving...

Switch sat thinking for a minute. He deeply regretted shooting that bounty as if he didn't, they wouldn't be scrapping by with very little money and starving to death. He caused the crew's suffering. He got up and walked down to the corridor to the crews lounge. Inside the lounge, Ivan was sitting on the sofa, net-diving using VR goggles, and Cooper was trying to take her mind off her hunger by reading through the same magazine that she had read 50 times before. If you didn't know Ivan, you wouldn't be able to tell that he was suffering. On the outside, his smile could fool anyone into thinking that he didn't have a care in the world. But inside, his hunger was slowly eating away at his sanity. He hummed a tune with no rhythm as he scanned for bounties. This reminded Switch of his mistake, and his guilt came flooding back. He tried to take his mind of it by sitting down at the table beside Cooper.

' Hey...' Switch mumbled as he tried to make conversation to Copper.

Cooper ignored him as she turned the page of her magazine. Switch knew that saying sorry wouldn't cure her hunger so folded his arms and lay down his head. He cried silent tears.

' You shouldn't be crying. You caused this.' Cooper said coldly. ' Yet, I would have done the same thing in your position.'

Switch raised his eyes and focused on Cooper.

' Its done now. We can't change it. And it was either him or you. I couldn't live with the guilt of knowing that you died just so we could live better lives.' Cooper assured Switch. ' We'll just have to get the next one.'

There was silence except for Cooper flicking the pages of her magazine, and Ivan tapping rapidly on his keyboard. Switch lay his head back down and slept a little better than the night before, knowing that someone else wasn't blaming him for their pain.

He woke a few hours later to find that both Cooper and Ivan were gone. He sat for a few minutes until he had fully woken up. He then got up and walked towards the cockpit. 

Inside the room was the ships controls, the holo-map, and the constant humming of electronics. Spike, Jet, Cooper and Ivan were all there. He sat down on the floor.

' We've found a bounty, Switch.' Ivan told Switch, with a hint of happiness in his voice. ' And I think we're gonna get this one.'

' We have?' Brilliant.' replied Switch.

' Yeah.' said Jet. ' This one's a drug baron. And we are almost guaranteed to get that bounty, 'cause Ivan cracked a coded message left in an abandoned forum on the web.'

' That's right. It referred to the selling of an illegal drug, known as Diaphyn. And plans to extend illegal import of it, to remote planets, where there is no police activity. It will then be smuggled to other planets in small quantities and sold on the black market.' Ivan stated, proud of his achievement.

' Diaphyn? That's that drug that the Gyuu Army were caught developing a few years back, isn't it?' questioned Switch.

' Yeah.' answered Ivan. ' It's supposedly meant to enhance your combat skills, by enhancing your senses and increasing your reaction time. Its meant to make the taker invincible, yet there is no scientific proof. Only rumours. There is also rumours that it was banned because of the damage it does to the brain. It is said to destroy tissue as soon as the drug enters the body. Repeated doses of the drug will almost certainly result in death.'

' So buyers are taking it for a brief moment of power? What a waste of life. Its sad that they would exchange their life for brief invincibility.' smirked Spike.

' There are large bounties on each of the main smugglers' heads. And a huge reward for the guy behind it all.' stated Jet. ' There is no interest from bounty hunters, though. We may be the only ones who know about this operation.'

' So when we going?' asked Cooper.

' I have set the ship's autopilot for the planet they plan to use as a depot. We are gonna catch them before they start exporting.' answered Jet. ' Get some rest, and train in the VCT. We have 18 hours until we reach our destination.'

Switch, Spike and Cooper left and headed towards the VCT chamber.

As Cooper stepped in the chamber, Spike said to Switch, ' Make sure you don't mess up this time. If you do...I can't be liable for my actions.' Spike then stepped into the chamber.

' I'll make sure of it...' Switch whispered to himself.

End of Episode 1

TO BE CONTINUED...


	2. Episode 2

Episode 2: The Perfect Scene Ruined By Evil

" Targets destroyed, 20 out of 20"

Switch, Spike and Cooper had trained to their breaking points in the short time they had before their operation began. Making their way through a few hundred VCT training stages, they all agreed that they had spent enough time training and should now rest for the 6 hours remaining before they reached their destination. The destination was Halojien, a planet in between the immense heat of twin suns. The planets capital, Choaitz, was a popular holiday resort for the many races in that part of the galaxy. The huge beaches and the heat of the suns made it the perfect place for tourists. But this resort also housed the underground compound where Diaphyn was going to be shipped from.

It was 3am; Switch, Cooper and Ivan sat in the crew's lounge. Switch slouched on the sofa staring into space, Ivan was net-diving and Cooper was napping in a chair.

One of the lounge's automatic doors whooshed open, and in walked Jet, closely followed by Spike, who was still half-asleep. Switch sat up so Spike could sit down, and Jet sat on the arm of the sofa.

" Alright. This is it. Time to bust this operation and claim those bounties. We're gonna be landing soon so get ready." Jet said with a hint of excitement in his voice. " We'll land the ship in the cities harbour and drop you off. Then we'll take the ship back in to orbit around the planet, waiting for when we have to pick you up."

" Your first objective is to locate one of their dealers. You will then follow him in the hope that he will lead you to the underground compound. What ever you do, don't let him see you. Well, at least until you are deep inside the compound." explained Ivan. " This is your target."

Ivan turned his computer screen towards the crew. The screen showed a human man in his twenties with short, spiky red hair and glasses. He had many peircings over his face, including a nose ring and many earrings. 

" He goes by the codename, Rabbit. You must follow him to their base." Ivan finished.

" He looks like he just had his face smashed." Spike smirked.

Two hours later, the SYMPATHY ship had entered the planets atmosphere and was heading towards the city. Spike, Switch and Cooper were getting their equipment ready. 

" I'm taking my Desert Eagle with me." Cooper said as they picked their weapons. " Its more reliable than the more modern handguns the UG army uses. You taking your USP, Switch?"

" Yeah. And plenty ammo. I feel like I'm gonna need it." Switch answered.

" Only a fool trusts his life on a weapon." Spike grunted as he left the room.

The ship landed in the harbour at around 6:30pm Halojien time. Switch, Spike and Cooper were getting ready to leave the ship. Jet was giving them one last pep talk on the deck of the ship.

" Ivan and I will keep in touch with the DTR (Digital two-way Radio, and small two-way radio in the shape of a studded earring). We will instruct you further once you enter the base. Ivan says 'good luck' and that you should look for Rabbit around the beach area. Good luck. Go out and get that bounty" 

Switch, Spike and Cooper stepped off the ship and stood and watched as the SYMPATHY took off towards the sky. They walked away together as one of the twin suns of Halojien set behind them.

" Remember, don't over estimate our training. Don't get careless and mess up what could be our last chance. I don't just mean Switch. I mean all of us. So don't go under-estimating our opponents and getting killed." Spike said as they walked. " We will get this bounty. No matter what it takes."

They walked in the direction of the beach, in silence as they thought about the mission.

" Are we staying overnight in a hotel?" Cooper asked, to break the silence.

" Maybe. If we can't find Rabbit by 4am, we'll stay somewhere for a few hours. Then search more." Spike answered. " We are most likely to find him a night around the night clubs. He will be selling the drugs to anyone, to try and make money. He will probably pass them off as the new trend, or something. Say that everyone is trying them. The unsuspecting buyers take the drug and carry on partying. Then the effects start to kick in. The taker will get a blinding headache and a hot pain in their chest. A few hours of immense pain later, the taker dies as the drug destroys the brain tissue."

Cooper didn't say anything. She was thinking of all the people who could have already died for Diaphyn.

" The quicker we find him and stop the exporting operation, the less people die. We just have to find him right away." Switch said, trying to be optimistic. 

End of Episode 2


End file.
